Computers My WONDERFUL experience with Dell!

About 53 weeks ago, I was the proud owner of a new Inspiron 8100 laptop.

Well, a laptop that shipped out with a bug that caused a system freeze every now and then.

But I could live with it.

Later on, the DVD function of the combo drive ceased being too good. It wouldnt play any faster than a snails pace, because it was choppy as hell.

However that didnt bother me much since I had a dvd player for my tv.

Things pretty much went alright from then on. Very good performance. Of course it would jam every now and then, and one time the cd drive vanished from the system and I had to reinstall windows to get it to show up again. And another time when I had to reinstall windows because it deleted several windows files during shut-down. (by the way, I wasnt on the net, so a virus is not a possibility.) but nothing much worse.

Until one day...

"Ok, time to burn a cd... Hmm, thats funny..."

For some reason, it saw ALL cd-r's as CD-RWs and wouldn't burn to them.

I sent an email to technical support. No reply came for a while.

A windows reinstallation wouldnt fix it. Neither would a hard-drive reformat. So that removed the possibility of a software bug.
Then the speakers, touchpad, mouse buttons on the keyboard and the 'mouse nipple' stopped working. For no reason.

So, I sent it into a repair shop.

The reply from tech support came back on Monday, after it went into the shop. About a week since I had sent it in.
But it didnt matter.

"If I read your email correctly, your computer only burns to RWs once."

I had written "my computer see's ALL CD-Rs as RWs and wont burn to them."

Keep in mind Dell's number one selling point is the tech support.
Today I get a call.

"Hi, Scott. It looks like a bad motherboard. Come pick it up."
"... You arent going to replace it?!"
"No. They're expensive and... uh... Dell doesnt like dealing with us!"
"But you said you were authori-"
"Bye Scott."

However it still functions, albiet with frequent crashes.

What I'm really angry about here is that I haven't modded the computer in any way, I haven't installed any bizarre software, I've regularly scanned for viruses along with all the other computer maintainance that Dell advises, and its -still- doing all this. Even fresh from the factory it wasn't stable.

I doubt I'm ever going to buy a Dell again.

 

Reasons like this is why I started to buy customized PCs. I used to go to this nice place near my neighborhood, then I found Monarch Computer, their customer support actually knows what they're talking about, and do help you out, unlike those bastards who work in those name brand computers who know absolutly jack **** on computers and put you on hold for several minutes just so they can contact some other moron at technical support who doesn't even know what a freaking motherboard is. Custom PCs of course also have their problems... but not as much as those god damn brand name PCs.

 

Tell me about it. Sadly it was really the only choice I had for a laptop.

 

Maybe if I sell as many organs as I can. Canadian sheckles make an Alienware cost me about 7500... before taxes and shipping.

 

wow, neph u really got screwed over on that didn't you. my dad has a dell no problems yet but i have had servel gateways and they all sucked *** they all crashed in very little time and even without me doing anything wrong...well anyway i would say go for a customized one or give dell a nother chance well the organ selling sounds good ill buy a lung...lol

 

The onyl way Im giving Dell another chance is if they offer to fix my computer for free or at a lower price... or repair at normal price with free upgrades.

 

Ah Dell...

Said this before, gonna say it ONE MORE time!

" Dell, the company that puts prices sky high, and u could get a better computer for that money.
Dell, the company that only the people who are newbies on computer buy them.
Dell, the company that has really poor service.
Dell, the company that makes u pay mostly for the brand, rather than the computer.
Dell, the company whom I will never buy from. " - A friend of mine..